News & Analysis
Media Blackout: US in Yet Another Illegal War ... in Yemen
Airstrike Kills 8 Suspected Militants in Yemen ... Officials in Yemen say an airstrike has killed eight militants in the country's south. The officials said Thursday's strike targeted a position held by militants with suspected links to al-Qaida in Yemen. On Wednesday, clashes between Yemeni forces and militants near Zinjibar in southern Abyan province killed at least 30 militants and seven soldiers. Militants have taken control of several areas in southern Yemen during the six-month uprising pressing for President Ali Abdullah Saleh's resignation. – Voice of America
Dominant Social Theme: The US is helping its Yemeni allies fight back against the terror threat.
Free-Market Analysis: How many wars are too many? Unnoticed largely in the press of larger events and obviously downplayed by the controlled Western media, the US and its allies are pursuing yet ANOTHER aggressive, illegal war – this one in Yemen.
How aggressive is it? It is a full-on conflict that has reportedly seen SEALS come ashore on a regular basis at night to engage tribal fighters in Abyan province, this newspaper has learned from sources in Yemen itself that are in a position to know.
The US is now involved in almost innumerable wars in the Middle East, but most have been reported in one way or another. This one has not been fully vetted as it continues to expand. Unconstitutional, secretive and expanding in scope and violence, it includes the massive, violent projection of US naval, air and Special Forces into parts of Yemen.
It is no skirmish but a coordinated, daily attack against hostile forces that supposedly include a number of "al Qaeda" (whatever they are) protected by local tribesman in the south of Yemen who have rebelled against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime. It involves considerable military effort and expenditure of what must be a US task force that includes sea, air and land power.
Despite the new war's massive scope, the major media and Congress remain culpably silent on this latest war (is there any other word for it?) even though such a massive military campaign must be well known to top power players in the media, in politics, in the intelligence community and obviously in the Pentagon itself.
This war is at least two months old, but its violence and aggressiveness have remained unreported until now. It has already resulted in the death of numerous civilians, including women and children. These deaths have gone unreported as well.
It is true that there have been a number of GENERAL reports on this new conflict but the scope and aggressiveness of this new war remain unstated. Those who live in Yemen – some 25 million people – are aware that the US is operating with impunity on Yemen's Southern flank, but the rest of the world does not know. Those in positions of power are obviously too frightened or too careful to comment.
The evil of unrestrained violence projected from what was once a US republic continues to expand; the evil of secret wars, secret violence, secret civilian deaths is a corrosive acid that eats away at civil society until the citizens of the West themselves will be exposed to the ruin they are currently visiting on other countries. The danger is not just to "terrorists" overseas but also to anyone who wishes to retain what is left of Western civilization.
In fact, the rights of those who reside in the US republic continue to degrade as the US and the West continue to pursue a phony war on terror. It is no accident in our view, but seemingly a malicious policy pursued by the world's top banking families – the power elite – in hopes of abrogating what remain of the rights of US citizens to understand and shape the military and political policies of their own country.
It is as well an abrogation of the US Constitution to regularly invade another country's shores without Congress holding a debate and declaring war. This is not merely a skirmish or "fly over" but a full-on military confrontation and it is one that has larger ramifications economically.
If Yemen is destabilized, Bahrain and eventually Saudi Arabia itself could become embroiled in domestic turmoil, which many observers believe could eventually end the fragile Saudi regime – the House of Saud. The Saud monarchy recently passed a law making it illegal for anyone to criticize a member of the Saud ruling family. Jail is to be the result, up to five years or more.
A failed Saud regime would likely collapse the US dollar as the world's reserve currency. The results would make the financial turmoil from the current downgrade of US Treasuries look minor, indeed. The failure of the US dollar reserve could create a world depression of the sort that has not been seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Nonetheless, a variety of forces are acting on the core of the Middle East to destabilize it. There are some, in fact, who suggest that President Saleh purposefully allowed the Southern tribes to rebel to pressure the West into supporting his failing government. But as is seemingly always the case, once the initial strategy has been implemented, the conflict spirals out of control.
What may have begun as a pressurizing strategy now threatens to destabilize the entire Southern area of Yemen and cause at the very least a schism between North and South. Perhaps this could result, as in the past, in disunion between North and South. Saleh himself came to power based on his ability to unify the North and South some 30 years ago. Now Yemen looks to be disintegrating.
The current round of military actions are being carried out in conjunction with Saudi Arabia, which increasingly serves as a proxy for US power in the region. Saudi aircraft are supposedly bombing in Abyan along with US planes. The Yemeni air force is not so involved as its pilots apparently proved ineffective in comparison with Saudi and American air power.
The secret war is being carried out in conjunction with the headless government of President Saleh who now resides in Saudi Arabia after having been blown up in a mosque in Yemen and undergoing at least six separate operations for burns and for lung and chest injuries.
Reports are rife in Yemen about the US's newfound aggressiveness, which is over two months old but as yet unreported by a single mainstream media outlet. Not only are US "boots on the ground," day and night a US carrier group pours missiles into the Abyan region, causing the abandonment of large parts of at least one major urban center there.
Planes are launching regular attacks from an aircraft carrier off the coast of Abyan, in addition to the unmanned drones flyover missions. This is a coordinated and massive military action and one of grave import that should have given rise to public debate in the US Congress. But there is only silence as the US military-industrial complex carries out its hostilities.
The gravity of such an engagement is obvious, given that wars once engaged can go on for years, even decades. The US is struggling with economic failure and social unrest. The addition of another apparently major war in the Middle East is a burden that citizens should willingly share if the need is great enough and the threat severe enough.
But there has been no discussion of adding yet another major war to the military actions now being conducted by the US and NATO in such countries Libya, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and Syria.
Elite elements of the West's military, intelligence and political establishment are entirely out of control, it would seem. The determination to project power anywhere and at any time is eroding even the frailest of constraints on powerful men who operate at the behest of the global banking establishment.
Conclusion: The purposeful degradation of civilization itself is apparently the aim of the elites. The goal is world government. Out of chaos, order. With secret, illegal, unconstitutional wars like the one in Yemen, this goal is advanced. The gravity cannot be overstated. The mounting recklessness and lawlessness of these actions provide evidence that opposition to freedom and civil society – embedded in mainstream Western institutions themselves – grow ever more bold.
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Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks, but this is an article about the expansion of the war on terror to Yemen. Our article was about the RESULTS (what's going on, exactly). And what's going on has never been ratified by Congress. Not at all.
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Posted by oldman67 on 08/27/11 11:39 AM
Suspected militiants?
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Posted by robert wheeless on 08/27/11 10:56 AM
Johnacord, your statement,in essence, is the very reason Ron Paul will NEVER serve as POTUS. The power-elite will never allow it.
Ron Paul, in his wisdom and supreme courage must know this and is still willing to suffer the consequences.
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Posted by johnacord on 08/27/11 10:01 AM
Memehunter-- How wrong you are. Through 11 terms in the House Ron Paul has proved himself to be the antithesis of a modern politician. He has remained true to his principles and has consistently applied them to his Congressional duties. As the 45th POTUS Paul would restore prosperity and freedom to this nation an d, in turn save Western Civilization from extinction.
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Posted by taxesbyanyothername on 08/27/11 07:09 AM
I agree with most ideas expressed in this article but most Yemenis would be hard pressed to even get to a Saudi population center or oil field, let alone do any damage once they got there.
If the House of Saud goes down it won't be because of Yemen. Nassar started a civil war there to try to bring down the Saudies and even though it lasted twenty years it hardly affected them, and the money they have now absolutely dwarfs what they had then.
If the U. S. gov. is fighting in Yemen to keep Saudi Arabia stable, then they make the Keystone Cops look like a bunch of geniuses.
This is being reported in other countries, and it scares them. Out of control, you bet, and the appearance is intentional.
Reply from The Daily Bell
If the U. S. gov. is fighting in Yemen to keep Saudi Arabia stable, then they make the Keystone Cops look like a bunch of geniuses.
Nope. There is a growing Jihadist movement (after years of cultivation by the Americans) and the Saudis and Americans at this point are increasing worried about what they have wrought. The Jihadists are in Saudi Arabia as well as Yemen. A war would strike Saudi soil.
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Posted by acudoc on 08/26/11 11:05 PM
Sorry, replied to the wrong one of your comments!
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Posted by acudoc on 08/26/11 11:04 PM
A bit more honest?
This planet you are living on, does it resemble earth?
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Posted by acudoc on 08/26/11 11:03 PM
Frank--the problem with your analysis is that it is rational. We don't do rational in the United States anymore.
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Posted by polson on 08/26/11 04:58 PM
You stand corrected. On August 15, when the Iowa straw poll was taken, John Stossel interviewed Ron Paul. In that interview, Paul spoke of all the wars we are currently in; included in his list is Yemen, which he said, "We are bombing them regularly." This is not good news, except its a reminder that Ron Paul is on top of a lot more than most of our congressmen, senators, and president.
Reply from The Daily Bell
"Bombing them regularly."
Our point was that this latest war has been discussed only GENERALLY. Sending in troops every night. Pounding the region with missiles daily; sending in Saudi and American fighter jets as well as drones - the totality of the action has NOT been reported in our view. Not a bit.
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Posted by Nanoo Visitor on 08/26/11 03:57 PM
Where a US task force is deployed is obscured by language like: "... western Pacific ... U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility, ... includes the Arabian Gulf". An oceanic swath that large is not much short of the global ocean of the Pangea era.
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Posted by memehunter on 08/26/11 03:11 PM
"The election of Ron Paul is absolutely essential to the preservation of Western Civilization."
Let's not get carried away, please... The USA are not the world and Ron Paul is just another politician, a bit more honest in some respects perhaps but that's about it.
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Posted by Jeanna on 08/26/11 02:17 PM
Recognition of true Western military purpose is essential to understanding the problem. Our military are the taxpayer supported and personal security system of TPTB. We are all conned into believing that our "boys" need our support while they are at war. I pray for their safe keeping, and their future unemployment. Ron Paul has stated he will call them home, and I certainly hope he is able to do so. But, it will be a battle ROYAL to get it done.
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Posted by Dave Jr on 08/26/11 02:04 PM
So in your twelve years, have never seen anyone relieved of their duties because of their beliefs, convictions or interpretation of events? And what of those who may have been qualified and not hired?
Just interested in an honest assessment of your experience.
Maybe my opinion is too harsh on the workers in the media.
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Posted by rossbcan on 08/26/11 01:47 PM
Try to publish the "rule of law" or ANY of the articles on my site and, YOU will be stopped. Insist and, YOU will be terminated:
Click to view link
Assuming your VERACITY, I assume the reason YOU have not met editorial or news pushback is, you have never tried to "rock the boat" with hard hitting truth, gone against news "policy", or risked the ire of your advertisers. And, "rah, rah, state" propaganda IS a big chunk of media revenue.
So, I guess, from your POV, you can, with lack of evidence to the contrary, conclude that you are free, personally and professionally, to speak your mind. Any logical proposition can be BELIEVED, if not tested.
But, by media complicity, silence and refusal to do your job of informing the public with REAL news, fact, and perhaps a bit of knowlege relating to history (been there, done that, we're doomed... ), you are also refusing to add value to your "industry", with long term consequence of "no industry".
So, on the complicity, distract public with irrelevancies, ignore truth course, you are out of a job anyway, as internet truth-telling completely decimates MSM credibility, revenue and business viability.
Perhaps telling the truth will provide a chance of avoiding this certain doom of your "profession"?
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Posted by cosmos on 08/26/11 01:36 PM
Any politician that believes in the "War" in the Middle East is right away declaring his "Bought & Paid For" position with the "Federal Reserve Bank", they grow politicians from the ground up and we vote them into office.
But, here is a much worse "Media Blackout", the Federal Reserve Bank loaning out $16 Trillion and won't tel;l Ron Paul who they loaned it to.
Click to view link
Without the bought out Media, America would be impossible to over throw.
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Posted by reegje on 08/26/11 11:43 AM
Have you noticed that in Libya, Egypt, the former enemies now suddenly friends of the USA (but still killing Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan) Al-Qeada is now being installed? The Muslim Brotherhood that is?
So these degenerate, inbred, sociopaths have a new enemy somewhere in the future to keep their war racketeering machine busy?
I cannot agree more with you: I did not ask for them either!
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Posted by reegje on 08/26/11 11:37 AM
We are all suspects now.
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Posted by Szatyor39 on 08/26/11 11:16 AM
You use the expression "downplayed by the controlled Western media." Which media in the West is controlled and by whom other than by those who own and edit them? I work in the media and have been part of a medium sized media corporation (8 TV stations, two major and 35+ community papers) for 12 years (from 1997 to 2009) and my writing has never been muzzled, controlled, or otherwise interfered with. But even if it had been by my publisher or editors, that's their job. All human institutions are in that sense "controlled." The owners and managers give them direction which may be open to criticism but not on the grounds that they are somehow insidiously controlled.
Reply from The Daily Bell
All human institutions are in that sense "controlled."
Yes but the mainstream Western media is all controlled in ONE direction, or at least for one purpose, that of world government.
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Posted by johnacord on 08/26/11 11:12 AM
Barry Goldwater warned us of an all volunteer well compensated military. He called it a modern day Praetorian Guard. This would not be tolerated if the military and the elites were dependent upon the draft to fill the ranks with cannon fodder. The danger is that this Praetorian Guard may decide the emperor has no clothes and appropriate power to itself. We have all heard the mantra "that couldn't happen in American,"you scaremonger, you conspiratorial lunatic." Well, we have never had a Praetorian Guard and we have never had an endless set of wars without the consent of the governed. To those who disagree, I point out that both Korea and Vietnam were ended not because of military fatigue but because the people demanded they be ended.
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Posted by johnacord on 08/26/11 11:02 AM
The election of Ron Paul is absolutely essential to the preservation of Western Civilization. As Paul's support grows the greater is his peril. Should he be terminated then his revolution will take another and far more confrontational course. There can be no retreat, no compromise; Paul will be on the ballot in 2012 either as the Republican or the Libertarian candidate. In the latter case, the message will be much more important than the installation of a Republirat RHINO. This is nothing less than a Battle for the Republic.
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